Cairngorm loop advice

I’m planning on taking a group of novice mountain biker friends (fit, but not biking fit) on a 2 day Cairngorms trip in Aug/Sept. There’s lots of information out there about the Cairngorm loop, but that’s a bit too much for them.

We live in Aberdeenshire, so will set off from Braemar. The plan is to stay overnight in Nethy Bridge (Lazy Duck hostel). I’ve mapped out the route for 2 days as follows:
Day 1: https://www.strava.com/routes/8786039
Day 2: https://www.strava.com/routes/8786013

Would you have any better suggestions? As long as it starts and finishes in Braemar then I’m open to ideas.

Ive ridden lairig an lough other direction which tends to be the favoured way IMO. Its a toughie whatever, but your route involves a lot of hike a bike with little reward. Ive not ridden the tomintoul section so cant comment whether reversing your entire loop is best. A more rideable alternative would be vua glenfeshie on way out and back either derry or tomintoul way back.

Also i wouldnt go via Coylumbridge. Out to ryvoan and forest lodge a much shorter and nicer way to get from glenmore to Nethy.

The path of the calves in that direction will be enough to put youre friends off mtb for life.

Geldie burn and Glen Feshie would be the better option, break them in slowly.

PS. Ride back through the braes of Abernethy and keep the fun quotant high, great little bit of singletrack.

Thanks guys. I did have a suspicion I was doing it backwards.

So we’re saying Geldie Burn and Glen Feshie up to Aviemore/Nethy Bridge is the best way to head out from Braemar – rather than heading in the wrong direction up Lairig an Laoigh in the ‘wrong’ direction?

I’ve done the route from Tomintoul to Braemar once before. It was nice, but not particularly challenging descents. The guys are up for a bit of a technical challenge. So on that basis should I come back from Nethy Bridge via Lairig an Laoigh / Derry?

Basically the inner loop of this:

Definitely do the LAL N to S. You could return from Braemar via Invercauld, Gleann an t-Slugain (pronounced Tloogan!)then the slightly tech Glen Gairn to join the normal route at Loch Builg. I confess to not being a fan of the Geldie/Feshie watershed as its on/off/boring scenery (some folk dig the bleaker than bleak vibe though!) for a couple of hours. Not much other choice though.

Don’t do the inner loop if you want to keep your friends. The Lairig an Laoigh is a tough push, and while the descent N to S into Glen Derry is fun, the hike a bike isn’t. The Glenfeshie bit is again tough going, but once you’re past the waterfall it starts getting fun again as you descend back to the road.

I’d suggest a modified outer loop, ridden clockwise. The section from Glen Tilt to Blair Atholl can be considered optional, but the big descent is really good fun. A road spin to the Gaick Pass, which rolls nicely. Cross to the inner loop at Feshiebridge, then ride past Ryvoan bothy back onto the outer to return to Braemar.

I did the inner loop of the CL back in October and wrote about it here:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/joining-the-bandwagon-275-bike-packing/page/2#post-8039809

There was a lot of hike a bike (due to it being waterlogged), it was my first major bikepacking expedition. And first of any for my mate. We made mistakes, it was kinda tough going but we survived. I knew it from years ago when I’d done when I was race fit (waaaaay easier funnily enough). Bynack & L&L weren’t fun, it’s wild but it’s a beautiful place to be. My mate works abroad and it certainly hadn’t put him off (neither did the 15 hour first day of the Moray Way!).

I’d say do the northern loop but as it’s my next route I can’t offer any personal experience on it,

Thanks again.

Is the northern loop a bit tougher (longer) than the inner loop? I’m concerned the journey from Aviemore > Tomintoul > Braemar might be a bit of a slog, with little reward in terms of exciting singletrack.

OK. Here’s the plan, based on a mix of advice from above :

Day 1 from Braemar > Tomintoul > Nethy Bridge. According to GPX route it is 58km with 817m climbing. Manageable for a novice I think?

Day 2 from Nethy Bridge > Abernethy forest > Derry Lodge > Braemar. GPX route says 50km with 842 m climbing.

Day 1:

After Dorback Lodge, take the track heading south from Ballintuim, across the Dorback Burn and through the Eag Mhor. Cross the Faesheallach, past Loch a’ Chnuic and then look for a little track heading off to your right at NJ031141. Take that to Forest Lodge and then head to Nethy Bridge from there.

Trust me – you’ll like it.

Cheers scotroutes. It seems to add 10km and 200m of climbing – so I’ll see how the mood goes when we get to the decision point.

Yeah, but it’s the best bit 🙂

Checking into this, as we are wondering about doing something similar at the end of this week as the forecast over there is so good (Scotroutes, thank you for the Arisaig routes, but as I currently write this from the tent here it’s blowing a hoolie so we might do a day ride tomorrow and then head east).

ashat- iainc, Sanny and a few others will be at Glenmore for a few days starting Thursday afternoon. I’ll likely be riding with them at least one day. I’m sure it would be fine for you to join us, or I could maybe hook up with you two for one day as well.

* trust scotroutes * indeed.

I’ve done that section as a climb, a climb again and descent. super. just goes on and on..

ahsat – as Colin says, you’d be more than welcome to join us – 7 of us staying at Glenmore Lodge from Thu night, plus Colin and some other locals joining us for the rides. Planning 3 decent sized varied day rides, starting and finishing at the Lodge

We’ll be doing some ‘route planning’ over a beer in the Glenmore bar Thu night… 🙂 would be good to catch up ! (mail in profile)

Glen Tilt > Feshie running really dry just now. Even enjoyed the climb up the Tilt singletrack (be a chore for non-bikers though as picky and exposed in places. Feshiebridge > Tomintoul pretty fun with lots of easy singletrack, though Tomintoul > Braemar is a double track monotony… All IMO of course.

Iain, Colin. Thanks ever so much for the kind offer. We aren’t around the whole weekend as p20 has to be back at work so we are going to head into the hills on Thursday morning, for nothing as epic as you endurance athletes can manage! If you are around on Saturday evening, we might be around for a beer (depends where we end up managing to camp before heading home). Cheers.

So a quick summary having done that loop fanatic plotted up, but without the detour to Nethy Bridge as we were based in Aviemore, but with Scotroutes Eag More singletrack is that is a great ride, but the section through Fords of Avon is AWFUL. Not even sure with an unloaded full sus I would have been able to ride much more of it, without turning into Danny Mac. Glen Derry onwards is great, and I am more than happy with some double track tedium with a fully loaded bike. However if you ever see me heading down to Fords of Avon again with a bike, shot me! It took us AGES and we are pretty experienced though clearly not good enough. I was pretty tired by the whole thing (not as fit as I should be) and had a few minor crashes as a result (my legs look a mess!) but the rest of the route is great. Overall 66 miles which took us 48 hours with 2 wild camps. Full trip write up, and gear review to follow when we get home.

Iain et al., we are currently having a beer at Glenmore but will be heading for an early night as have to drive home tomorrow. Hope you had a good ride.